Local NAACP: Charging Mother After Child Died in Hurricane Florence Is Racist

TRAGIC

Published Oct. 31, 2018 10:02PM ET

Jason Miczek/Reuters

The president of a local North Carolina NAACP chapter said police charging a mother whose child died during Hurricane Florence with involuntary manslaughter represented “racism,” The Washington Post reports. Corine Mack, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg branch of the NAACP, slammed the decision to charge 20-year-old Dazia Lee. “She was attempting to get her child out of the car, not to have her child die, and to charge her on top of the fact that she is in mourning for the rest of her life, that represents implicit bias, insensitivity, and even racism,” Mack told the newspaper. Lee lost her 1-year-old son, Kaiden, in September after she allegedly drove around the barricades of a blocked highway and was hit with Florence’s floodwaters. Lee was able to get herself and Kaiden out of the car, but she reportedly lost her grip on him in the water. His body was reportedly found the next day. Union County Sheriff’s Office charged Lee with “involuntary manslaughter and driving on a closed or unopened highway,” and she could reportedly face 13- to 16-months in jail for the manslaughter sentence. Mack also noted to the Post that two South Carolina sheriff’s deputies were not charged after two mental health patients died when they drove through Florence flood waters. The deputies were only fired. “Black men and women are disproportionately arrested and charged for similar infractions of white citizens who are not arrested or charged,” Mack said.